Graduation from Diplomado en Pastoral Urbana

I experienced a few college flashbacks Friday as my name was called (as best as it could be pronounced) and I walked to the front of the room to receive my diploma in the “Diplomado en Pastoral Urbana.” I know Tara and I have mentioned it before but now that it´s done I wanted to give a little more of an overview. For four weeks, spread out from July to January every other month, Tara, Miriam and I have enjoyed the incredible opportunity of participating in a continuing education course on “Pastoral Urbana” or “Urban Pastoral Work” at the Universidad Iberoamericana a little way up the road from the Pueblo of Santa Fe. (Kirsten hopes to enroll in the next round starting in April.) The course, which has completed eight generations, is a team effort of the Ibero and the Pastoral Juvenil en Red (Youth Ministry Network), a diverse team of religious and lay people from around Mexico City. And yes, the whole thing was in Spanish, so bear with me as I struggle to translate into English at this point.



The world has long passed the tipping point where more than half the world´s population lives in a city, and seems to be only trending toward ever-increasing urbanization. In Mexico, 7 out of 10 people live in an urban area. Mexico City is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world with over twenty million people. The premise of the course consists in observing the current reality of the city, be it Mexico City or other, systematizing it into theory for ministry, and applying that theory concretely to specific pastoral work.

The traditional model of church, what the course refers to as the “rural model,” is based on the physical church building at the center of a town being the necessary gathering place for the faithful. However, the modern city has ruptured that model. There is no longer a clear city center with the church as its focal point. Daily, city inhabitants travel hours from home to work, hours in a different direction to see friends or family, and by the time they get back to their house, it is often only to sleep. While 85% of the Mexican population identifies itself as Catholic, only 5% is practicing.

The Diplomado en Pastoral Urbana centers on restructuring our paradigms of church and ministry. It means not waiting for people to come to the sanctuary, since that clearly is not working anymore, but rather going to where the people are. Father Benjamín Bravo, coordinator of the course and leader of the Pastoral Urbana team, summarized Pastoral Urbana as “returning to be catholic,” but catholic in the sense of universal, pluricultural. Pastoral work cannot be centered in the church building itself but rather in the “church” which is the people.

The course is designed with lectures and testimonies from the Pastoral Urbana team as well as experts from around the city and from varying fields, some field visits, and a final thesis paper with practical plans for personal work in the future. The first week´s module entitled “The City Lives” was centered on discovering different “cities” and “cultures” within the city. We examined how all cultures have a type of religious symbolism and ritual, though they may look different than mass and the temple might more likely be a soccer stadium. Our field work for the week included visits to a lucha libre fight, a temple of the Santa Muerte (holy death/death saint), a school in a known prostitution district, and the local very high-end mall. The homework assignment challenged us to observe within our parish and immediate community of Santa Fe the number and gathering points of different cultural-religious “cities”.

Week 2, “God Lives in the City”, included more biblical analysis of that urban cultural reality we were training to become more aware of. The homework called for us to further analyze Revelations chapters 21 and 22 and give specific answers as to where we see God already living in the city of Santa Fe. Father Benjamín said this was the most difficult week because it called for a leap of faith. For Tara and I who both grew up in the country, seeing God in nature, this assignment was particularly challenging, as well as fruitful. It gave me a renewed perspective on my urban mission experience.

In Week 3, “Urban Evangelization”, we learned about a variety of house church models from the direct experience of priests and lay people living them around Mexico City. The final week, “Pastoral Work and Social Impact”, focused on allowing us to finish our final papers and hear testimonies from people living the teaching of Pastoral Urbana, and ultimately the Gospel, in their various work places, like the physics classroom.

Tara and I worked together on our final paper to complement and improve our work in youth ministry at the Santa Fe parish. We titled it “Pastoral Juvenil y la Pluralidad, Cuerpo y Afecto de Postmodernismo: El Pueblo de Santa Fe” or “Youth Ministry and the Plurality, Body and Affect of Postmodernism: The Town of Santa Fe.” We followed the same basic structure of the course: we observed the complex reality of youth in Santa Fe based on our work over the past year and a survey; we analyzed that reality in light of the Bible, Church documents and a social science-based analysis of a “change of the times”; and then we applied conclusions and proposed several lines of action.

We plan to follow this plan for the remainder of our time here in Mexico, and hope that it will serve the youth ministry here long after we are gone. Basic analysis and conclusions include that as youth we relate more through the body and feelings than rational or scientific language. In a time of growing individualism, youth ministry has to be centered on experiences with others and service, utilizing the language of the body, technology and social networks, etc. (I will cut myself off here, but we are happy to talk if anyone has more questions!)

The course itself was fantastic, but the environment of the course made it a truly impactful experience. Alfonso Vietmeier, member of the Pastoral Urbana en Red and one of the course leaders, summed it up in our final celebration when he looked around and said that the group embodied exactly what Pastoral Urbana should be: a variety of people, lay and religious, international, interdenominational, of all ages and all professional backgrounds working to make the Kingdom of God real here and now. We embodied Father Benjamín´s definition of catholic.

There were twelve of us from Santa Fe, varying from international missionaries, to ministry leaders, to a dentist, to young students, as well as a priest and seminarian from outside the city, and several other people from other neighborhoods. We ate lunch together every day, sharing experiences and continuing to learn from one another after the lectures were over. We completed assignments together, meeting for long nights during and between course weeks. We were not just individual students taking a course for our own benefit, but rather a family, a mini reflection of God´s Kingdom, working together and building one another up to learn how to better live that Kingdom in the city here and now.

The Pastoral Urbana course was a spark for more work in Santa Fe, work that will be supported by a local, city-wide, and even national network. The twelve of us from the parish will continue meeting together to encourage one another to apply and pass on our knowledge in and outside the parish, and plans are already in place to visit another parish and migrant house where fellow students work.

By Emma Buckhout, Incarnate Word Missionary, Mexico City

Graduation Day – Among the graduates of Diplomado en Pastoral Urbana are Incarnate Word Missionaries (back row, starting fourth from left) Emma Buckhout, Tara Hurford, and Miriam Bannon.

Season’s greetings to you from Peru!

I showed up at Hospice around 10am ready to drink some hot chocolate and try my first bite of panetón. I was greeted at the door by the familiar faces and smiles of my co-workers, some little kids anxiously awaiting their treats, and some people dressed as Papa and Mama Noel. I immediately spotted one of my favorite kids, Sol, a granddaughter of one of my patients. I went over to sit next to her and the show started. First we sung some Christmas carols and clapped along with Papa and Mama Noel. Then we played some games and danced around in a circle with the children. Last, some scripture was read about the birth of Christ and there was a short prayer and reflection on the true meaning of Christmas. It was touching to see all of the kids sitting silently, listening intently to the story of Mary and Joseph approaching Bethlehem (Or Maria and Jose, if you will). The kids were all yelling along with the story, eagerly answering “JESUS!!” to the question “And who was born to us that night??”. The true meaning of Christmas was obviously not something foreign to these children. At last, trays of hot chocolate and panetón were served. The smiles on the kid’s faces were contagious, and as I sat in the 85 degree heat drinking my hot chocolate, I couldn’t help but observe what a beautiful site it was to see all of these children having a big birthday party for Jesus. I had just experienced my first chocolotada.
Katie Langley, Incarnate Word Missionary

“Niño mañuelito que te puedo dar, niño mañuelito que te puedo dar…esta noche Jesus ha nacido, esta noche Jesus ha nacido…ven a cantar, ven a cantar…”  Singing carols at the top of our lungs we opened our Christmas celebration with the kids in our prevention program.   Faces brilliant with smiles and arms clapping in rhythm, the house usually filled with antsy students bursted with little bodies eager to party.  8 year-old Veronica read the Christmas story, I lead the group in a small reflection, and fellow teacher and friend, Rita, joined us all in prayer.  We then shared the traditional hot chocolate and panetón followed by some extra treats to reward the kids for their hard work this year.  All of our school-aged students passed to the next grade-level as hoped for in our work plan, thus we had lots to celebrate in addition to the birth of our savior!   His coming greatly coincides with the positive changes I see in many of our students during this time of evaluation at the end of the year, changes that to me signify new life, growth, and hope, in young people who are born into difficult situations that no child deserves.  I pray for the continued strength and inspiration of our team of volunteers to keep up the good work, and for our children and their families, that grace may find them when they need it most. ¡Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo!  Take care and much love to you and yours!                                                                                                                               Kelli Nelson, Incarnate Word Missionary

As has become tradition, the youth movement's biggest Christmas project this year was a chocolotada for about 60 of the poorest children in our parish.  But unlike tradition, this year we decided to do it a little differently.  They still received the signature panetón and hot chocolate, but the event was not advertised as a chocolotada.  Instead, we designed it as a birthday party for Jesus.  With animation similar to that typical of birthday parties here, each youth group presented a fun Christmas song or skit, culminating in a live representation of Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and angels (featuring our very own Katie Langley doing her best to hold a crying, hair-pulling, very heavy baby Jesus).  After circling the patio with the holy family, the kids re-entered the party room, where their gifts were arranged around a candle.  Each child then received a paper heart with the explanation that Jesus doesn´t need us to gift him expensive things, just our hearts.  One by one, they located their heart next to the candle, picked up a gift, and handed the gift to another child.  It was a beautiful celebration (with very few flaws) in which the youth groups united together to give a clear message to the kids: Christmas isn´t about the gifts we receive but about sharing the love that Jesus came to give us.  Perhaps the kids got more excited by the piñatas at the end, but Jesus´ love was very apparent in the laughter, sincerity and participation of the youth and children alike. Emily Ruskamp, Incarnate Word Missionary

If you let it, the holiday season can be a really special time. It can be a time to appreciate life and the lives of the ones you love. Christmas gives us an opportunity to be thankful for Christ’s presence in the world. Celebrating the New Year allows us to look back on the previous year as well as look forward towards our future.                                                                                                                                                                       In Peru the holiday season is a very important time, culturally, spiritually and of course, socially. Here though, just like in the United States, it can sometimes become easy to forget exactly why we are celebrating. It’s easy to make it about receiving. It’s easy for the holiday season to turn into something materialistic and shallow.                                                                                                                                                             We’ve probably all heard the phrase “Jesus is the reason for the season.” I wish it was that simple, too.   Spending my first Christmas in a developing country really opened my eyes to how good and also how dangerous giving can be. There’s something about the holidays that seems to make everyone more generous. We want to share. We want to give. Which is good, right?  I visited the small mountain village of Huashcayan with the posta Santa Clara, the medical center I volunteer with, to deliver gifts to the children there. There were only six of us and no fanfare. We visited with the teachers, sang Peruvian Christmas carols, shared sweetbread and hot chocolate and then gave each child a present. They were all happy and appreciative. Dr. Julia Hidalgo asked the children why they were together celebrating, “Who was born? Why are we celebrating today?”

“Jesus!” the kids yelled.

 I left feeling happy and in the Christmas spirit.                                                                                                  Later during the week the posta helped an elementary school from Chimbote deliver presents to the children of Cambio Puente, a rural area fifteen minutes away. It turned into something really horrible. Children screamed while parents jostled each other for better positions in line. Some mothers grabbed their child’s gift and left without saying a word. I felt like many had missed the point altogether, and it made me angry. At first, I blamed the parents for allowing their children to think the entire event had been about getting a new toy. “It isn’t just about receiving presents!” I wanted to yell.                           

But wasn’t it?

Hadn’t we allowed it to become all about the presents.                                                                                                

I realized that there isn’t so much a danger in giving as in the way we give. The three kings gave the holy family extravagant and seemingly impractical gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. It wasn’t the gifts that we’re important though, it was the journey they underwent and the humility in their presentation that we should emulate. When we give, we have an obligation to be intentional about the way we do it. We have a duty to protect the meaning of our holidays. We have to remember that if the message of Christ coming into the world—with everything that entails—does not form the center of our holiday rituals including gift giving, we endanger the entire meaning of the season.  

 Kyle Seymour, Incarnate Word Missionary